The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, October 31, 1996, Page 2, Image 2

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Clinton, Dole campaign schedules full
candidates continue
fighting for votes as
they enter their final
week.
WASHINGTON (AP)—President
Clinton is spending more than $1 mil
lion a day on television ads in the
campaign’s final week as he tries to
block any path to a Bob Dole come
back and put several traditional GOP
strongholds in the Democratic column.
With the luxury of a lead, Clinton
has a campaign schedule that reaches
through the final weekend and includes
stops today in Michigan, Colorado and
Arizona. Dole is campaigning in Ten
nessee, Louisiana and Florida today
and scrambling to settle on a schedule
beyond that.
The Dole campaign and other Re
publican sources painted a picture of
strategic chaos as the GOP nominee
searched for a formula to overcome
Clinton’s lopsided lead in the Electoral
College.
Before leaving Washington for the
final time before the election, Dole and
his wife, Elizabeth, stopped their mo
torcade at the Lincoln Memorial this
morning. They walked halfway up the
steps and gazed at Lincoln’s statue.
Nelson Warfield, Dole’s campaign
spokesman, said it was “a moment of
personal reflection. He did it for good
luck before the final sprint.”
Dole used his first stop in
Clarksville, Term., to attack Clinton’s
economic agenda.
“For three years, we’ve seen the so
called Clinton recovery. Well, if he is
re-elected, brace yourself for the
Clinton recession,” Dole said.
While Dole at every stop predicts
a dramatic comeback, aides and asso
ciates said Dole was under no illusions
about his standing but was determined
to make it a competitive race and help
Republicans in congressional contests.
One senior aide in Washington said
Dole had taken a heavy hand in sched
uling, repeatedly asking for more poll
ing information as he looked for states
where Clinton’s lead was shaky.
' “Something is happening across
America,” Dole said Tuesday evening
in Colorado, a battleground state where
Clinton holds a narrow lead. “The
people are beginning to focus.”
Clinton, at a Washington fund
raiser Tuesday night that was dubbed
a “victory” concert, asked a youthful
audience of supporters and contribu
tors to keep pushing hard right until
Election Day next Tuesday.
Clinton’s script called for him to
play it safe and spend much of the fi
nal week focusing on education, an is
sue that Democratic polling shows has
powerful appeal to independent voters
and on which Clinton and fellow
Democrats enjoy an advantage over
Republicans.
On Tuesday, Clinton recommended
the establishment of 3,000 charter
schools, which operate without many
of the constraints imposed by local
public school districts.
Republican governors have been a
Police say woman knew killer’s plans
Investigators believe Internet friends planned sexual torture, killing
LENOIR, N.C. (AP) — When
Sharon R. Lopatka left her Maryland
home, she wrote a note telling her hus
band she was going to visit friends in
Georgia and would not be coming
back. She also asked him not to seek
vengeance.
Lopatka, though, had planned all
along on going to North Carolina,
where she expected to be sexually tor
tured and killed by a man she had met
over the Internet, police said lliesday.
Apparently, she got her wish.
Her body was found in a shallow
grave last week behind a mobile home
in Collettsville. The home’s owner,
Robert Glass, was charged with first
degree murder and is being held with
out bond:• ; : *•
“If my body is never retrieved,
don’t worry, know that I’m at peace,”
she wrote her husband. She also asked
him not to go after her attacker, police
said.
An autopsy showed the cause of
death was strangulation, but initial tests
were inconclusive on whether she was
sexually tortured before being killed.
Glass claimed it was an accident,
District Attorney David Flaherty Jr.
said Tuesday.
Investigators said computer mes
sages from Glass, recovered from
Lopatka’s home computer, indicate that
she traveled to North Carolina know
ing what awaited her.
Messages found among the 870
pages of e-mail on the woman’s com
puter also reveal that she had previ
ously used the Internet to approach
someone else about killing her, said
Sgt. Barry Leese of the Maryland State
Police.
That individual refused to comply
with Lopatka’s death request, Flaherty
said.
Lopatka, 35, of Hampstead, Md.,
had three Social Security numbers and
operated three World Wide Web pages
out of her home. One offered to write
classified advertisements for $50 and
promised such success that customers
would “literally watch the orders oour
in.”
The other two pages, advertising
psychic hot lines, were titled “Psychics
Know All,” and “Dionne Enterprises.”
She got a percentage of the revenue
from all the 1-900 calls generated by
the pages, said the company’s owner,
Wendell Craig of Phoenix, Ariz.
Glass, 45, a father of three who
separated from his wife earlier this
year, has worked as a computer pro
grammer for the county government for
nearly 16 years. Neighbors said he
seemed to change, taking less interest
in his home, after his wife left him.
Glass and Lopatka apparently met
in a sexually oriented “talk group” or
“chat room” on the Internet, Leese said,
and according to e-mail on her com
puter, she agreed to meet him in North
Carolina on Oct. 13.
She left Baltimore by train that day
and met Glass in Charlotte, investiga
tors said. Autopsy results indicate she
was killed three days later.
Her husband reported her missing
Oct. 20. Police investigating her dis
appearance said they discovered the e
mail messages from Glass despite his
attempt to have her erase the files.
Messages from “slowhand” —
Glass’ apparent Internet nickname —
“described in detail how he was going
to sexually torture... and ultimately kill
her,” according to the search warrant
application investigators used to search
Glass’ property.
“There’s no way to know precisely
what was in her head when she came
here,” said Capt. Danny Barlow. “The
only thing we can see is the e-mail
messages and there they discussed in
detail as to what they expected to hap
pen when she got here....
“Whether she expected it to hap
pen or not, if you kill someone you
commit murder. You have intent com
municated precisely,” Barlow said.
Investigators spent Tuesday down
loading Glass’ computer files. Other
items seized from his home include
drug paraphernalia and a .357-Mag
num pistol.
Glass’ appointed lawyer, Neil
Beach, called the search warrant affi
davit misleading.
“I don’t believe he’s guilty of what
he’s charged with,” Beach said.
A friend of Lopatka also described
her as happily married and sensible.
“Until someone proves it to me, I
won’t believe that this could be her,”
Diane Safer said. “She was conserva
tive and careful. This is such a mys
tery.”
uroeapeace
researchers allege that
the contaminants came
from# 1971 underground
nuclear missile test
NEW YORK (AP) — Radiation
from one of the biggest underground
nuclear tests ever conducted in the
United States has reached the surface
of an Alaskan island, the environmen
tal group Greenpeace alleged Tuesday.
Energy Department officials met in
wasnington witn ureenpeace researcn
ers who made the discovery and said
they would analyze samples gathered
last summer on the Aleutian island of
Amchitka, The New York Times re
ported.
At issue is a 1971 test that was op
posed by Alaska natives, environmen
talists, members of Congress and the
Canadian and Japanese governments.
The Nixon administration said the test
was needed for research on an antibal
listic missile system.
No such system ever was deployed.
Federal tests in the years since, most
of them on nearby water, have found
no radiation leakage.
Officials said the amounts of radia
tion found by Greenpeace researchers
were small and could be fallout from
weapons tests conducted elsewhere,
but said thidy could not be sure.
“The science part of it looks inter
esting,” Undersecretary of Energy
Thomas Grumbly said. “We should get
into it with them and' see if we can
verify it.”
Greenpeace said the test site and the
site of a smaller test on the island in
1965 are leaking plutonium and am
ericium. Both radioactive elements
have been absorbed by moss and al
gae fed by water traveling through the
cavities produced by the bombs.
The island is uninhabited and the
amount of radiation detected is too
small to pose a threat to humans. But
Greenpeace said it is concerned about
the radiation entering the food chain.
“These things tend to bio-accumu
late,” Greenpeace biologist Pam Miller
said. “The potential is for these long
lived, quite toxic radionuclides mov
ing up the food chain.”
Wind chilis Midwestern states
Power outages in the
Midwest affect nearly
300,000 people.
By The Associated Press
Wind gusting to 85 mph snapped power lines
across the Midwest from Minnesota into Ohio
early Wednesday, blacking out nearly 300,000
customers and driving temperatures down.
“It’s a good time to be indoors,” Kathy
Golden said Wednesday in Detroit.
Outside Detroit, wind knocked down a wall
of a Home Depot store under construction
Wednesday in suburban Harper Woods. In
downtown Detroit, window washing equipment
swinging in the wind smashed windows at the
Renaissance Center office complex.
Gusts reached as high as 8S mph during the
night near Fort Wayne, Ind. and 80 mph in the
Chicago area. In Minnesota, gusts hit 81 mph at
Mankato.
Paul and Jean Paulson and their two daugh
ters were awakened early Wednesday at Elkhart
Lake, Wis., as balls of fire shot from a snapping
power line outside their home and a policeman
shouted a warning over a loudspeaker.
“We woke up a whole lot faster than we
planned,” Paulson said. “I don’t know, I thought
I heard... 'Get out of the house.”’
“It’s just crappy, but that’s Minnesota,” said
Sheryl Ball in Austin, Minn., where the wind
chill hit 12 below zero Wednesday morning.
Farther west, Garrison, N.D. had a wind chill
of 31 below zero. y
Power outages affected an estimated 144,000
customers overnight in Michigan, 90,000 in Il
linois, 18,000 in Indiana, 14,000 in Wisconsin,
15,000 in Ohio, and 23,000 in Minnesota. Ear
lier Tuesday, scattered outages also were re
ported in Iowa and Nebraska, where wind gusts
hit 77 mph.
Editor: Doug Kouma
472-2588
Managing Editor: Doug Peters
Assoc. News Editors: Paula Lavigne
Jeff Randall
A&E Editor: Joshua Gillin
Night Editor: Beth Narans
Photo Director: Tanna Kinnaman
Web Editor: Michelle Collins
Layout Editor: Nancy Zywiec
Night News Editors: Bryce Glenn
Jennifer MHke
Antone Oseka
Art Director: Aaron Steckeiberg
Publications Board
Chairman: Travis Brandt -
Professional Adviser: Don Walton
473-7301
FAX NUMBER: 472-1761
The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska
Union 34,1400 R St„ Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly
during summer sessions.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by calling
472-2588. The public has access to the Publications Board.
Subscription price is $55 for one year.
Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34, 1400 R St.,
Lincoln, NE 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, Neb.
ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1996 DAILY NEBRASKAN
major force behind the charter school
movement; Dole supports the idea as
part of a broader initiative, opposed by
Clinton, to allow parents to choose
where their children attend school.
Dole said he had 138 electoral
votes locked up, but a look at state-by
state polling suggested he could bank
on perhaps half that heading into the
final week.
Clinton entered the stretch toward
Election Day next Tuesday enjoying
more than a lead in the polls: As of Oct .
16, the last filing deadline, Clinton had
more than $34 million to spend, while
Dole had $19.2 million. Both candi
dates have spent a good deal of those
funds in the two weeks since the fil
____
FBI official
admits destroying
Ruby Ridge report
WASHINGTON (AP) — A
senior FBI official pleaded guilty
Wednesday to obstruction of jus
tice, admitting he destroyed a
report criticising the FBI’s han
dling of the deadly 1992 siege
at an Idaho retreat of a white
separatist.
E. Michael Kahoe, who en
tered his plea before U.S. Dis
trict Judge Ricardo Urbina,
agreed to cooperate with pros
ecutors investigating a possible
coverap by other FBI officials.
Under terms of a deal struck
last week, Kahoe admitted de
stroying an FBI critique of its
role in the Ruby Ridge, Idaho
affair. He also ordered a subor
dinate to destroy his copies of the
repeat as well as a computer disc
on which much of the informa
tion was stored.
Prosecutors said that Kahoe
destroyed the documents to keep
them from attorneys represent
ing white separatist Randall
Weaver, whose wife and son
were killed during a nine-day
standoff at Weaver’s rural Idaho
cabin in 1992.
Kahoe, a 25-year FBI vet
eran, faces up to 10 years in
prison and a $250,000 fine in
connection with his felony plea.
U.S. Attorney Mike Stiles
said that Kahoe is cooperating
with the government’s investiga
tion but declined to elaborate.
“The guilty plea proceeding
speaks for itself,” Stiles said. “A
serious matter has been resolved
with Mr. Kahoe’s guilty plea this
morning.”
Kahoe, who had been sus
pended with pay. until last Tues
day when the criminal informa
tion was filed, will officially re
sign from the FBI by Jan. 1,
1997, Stiles said.